Mr. Daniels: …This is more frightening than even the Soviet nuclear threat, which would have been more horrible. If we go broke, we’ll still be alive, but the probability was so small. In this case, the damage, the catastrophe, will be very, very severe, and the probability – I mean, and it’s inexorable.

Q: Absent action.

Mr. Daniels: Absent action, yeah. The probability, I think, sadly, is very high.

It appears that absent action part would essentially be Daniels’s argument for higher office, were he to seek it.